Movement or the like of a virtual machine (for example, movement (or migration) of, creation of and elimination (or deletion) of a virtual machine) is performed by server virtualization without depending on the arrangement of physical servers. After the movement or the like of the virtual machine has been performed, it is not possible for the virtual machine that moved to perform communication unless resettings of the physical switches in the network are performed.
Problems in communication in the case where a virtual machine has moved by live migration will be explained using FIG. 1. In the system illustrated in FIG. 1, a physical server 1 is connected to port P1 of a physical switch, and a physical server 2 is connected to port P2 of the physical switch. A Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) α and a VLAN β are set for the port P1 of the physical switch. In the state before a virtual machine VM1 moves, the VMs 1 to n are executed on a hypervisor in the physical server 1, and VM are not executed in the physical server 2. It is presumed that the VM1 belongs to the VLAN α.
Here, it is presumed that the VM1 moves by the live migration from the physical server 1 to the physical server 2. The VM1 transmits packets in the physical server 2, which is the destination of the movement, in order to perform communication with the VM in the physical server 1. The port P2 of the physical switch receives the packets that were transmitted from the VM1. However, the setting for the VLAN α has not been performed for the port P2, so the physical switch is not able to relay the packets received from the VM1.
There is a technique that automatically performs setting of the physical switch when the movement or the like of the virtual machine has been performed. More specifically, when the physical switch receives a packet from a virtual machine after the movement, the physical switch identifies a profile from a profile DataBase (DB) based on the transmission source ID (for example, MAC address) that is included in the received packet. The physical switch then applies the identified profile to the port that received the packet.
However, this technique does not anticipate that the physical switch will be connected in a multi-stage connection (also called a cascade connection). Moreover, the specifications of apparatuses differ for each vendor, so compatibility among apparatuses is difficult. Therefore, it is difficult to apply this technique to a network in which the physical switches are connected with the multi-stage connection.
Moreover, in Virtual station interface Discovery and configuration Protocol (VDP) that is regulated in IEEE 802.1Qbg, when the movement or the like of the virtual machine is performed, the physical switch is automatically set. More specifically, when the movement or the like of the virtual machine is performed, the hypervisor in the physical server transmits a VDP packet to the physical switch. The physical switch identifies a profile from a Virtual Station Interface (VSI) manager based on a VSI ID that is included in a data field of the VDP packet. The physical switch then applies the identified profile to the port after the movement, according to the type of VDP packet, or deletes the identified profile from the port before the movement.
However, in this technique, there is a problem in that the hypervisor of the physical server cannot be used unless the hypervisor supports the VDP.
In other words, there is no technique for automatically setting the physical switch even if the hypervisor in the physical server does not support the VDP.